Marrying the Mafia 2
Director: Jeong Yong-ki
Year: 2005
Rating: 5.5
Country: Korea
This isn't so much a sequel as a very distant
cousin to the first Marrying the Mafia, but like that one it was an enormous
hit. Not so much with me as it has a very funny first half but then bogs
down when it attempts to get serious. Koreans, as I guess do every nationality,
enjoy poking fun at their organized crime from time to time - something you
would never do in real life. As in the first one, it revolves around an unmarried
member of the Mafia trying to get married - this time at the behest of the
mother - who runs the gang. This film actually spawned two more sequels about
the same crime family.
Mrs. Hong (Kim Soo-mi is a tough battle-axe
who runs a large crime family and who wants to see her eldest son In-Jae
(Shin Hyun-Joon) hooked up in marriage and producing lots of little brawlers
to carry on the family name. In the opening scene she calls her three sons
on the phone that she is being held hostage and they have to save her. In-Jae
shows up first and fights his way through a pack of ruffians only to have
his mother tell him it took him too long - this was just a test. His two
brothers are helping in the search generally giving him bad advice about
women and breasts. He is set up with one girl after another who are thrilled
at being matched up with a mobster - but they all bore him. Until he sees
Jin-Kyung (Kim Won-Hee) walk by on the way to a meeting. He is immediately
smitten - and not long afterwards he gets to save her life in the parking
garage when she assaulted by a group of men.
He is gobsmacked with love but embarrassed
to tell her what he does for a living - you know beat up people, punish people,
steal - that sort of thing - and she thinks he is in the business of charity.
And he doesn't know that she is a Prosecutor who specializes bringing gangsters
to heel. Obviously in movies a perfect combination! You can sort of take
it from there. Everyone overdoes their parts a bit - a lot of stupid is in
there but it is generally a sweet film with a few action scenes and some
good laughs upfront. Shin Hyun-Joon is excellent as the hang dog gangster
who is sort of tired of the gangster life and Kim Won-Hee is excellent as
the prosecutor with a hard side and a soft side - at one point quite amusingly
using a confiscated cream to enhance her breasts with some unforeseen side
effects.
